Advent Calendar 13 – “But Belief”

“But Belief“

Yo, yo, yo

day 13 of our Advent Calendar and we’ll kick off the second half (which is the better half) of the Advent Calendar with a bit of listening comprehension. Today, I’ll tell you a bit about my favorite superstitions. As usual, I’m not making much of an effort to speak especially clearly or slowly, but I did break it up into small chunks so you don’t have to skip all the time. The first ones are super short and then the chunks get longer because … learning :).

Oh and a note to Firefox users:

Chances are that the audios WON’T play. Firefox has been showing a bit of an attitude lately. So in that case, you can access the mp3-files directly from here. Not super convenient, but it really isn’t my fault.

Nee, Spaß. Ähm. Die 13 is ähm einer der berühmtesten Aberglauben der Welt. Die Zahl bringt Unglück sagt man in vielen Ländern.Nah, kidding. Erm. The 13 is erm one of the most famous superstitions in the world. The number brings bad luck, is what they say in many countries.

Und genau geht’s darum, dass man in dem Moment, wo die Gläser zusammenstoßen, seinem äh Anstoßpartner in die Augen guckt.And in details it’s about that you have to look into your toast-partner’s eyes in the moment when the glasses meet each other.

Der zweite Aberglaube, bei dem ich mitmache, ist auch wahnsinnig berühmt in Deutschland. Und zwar darf man jemandem nicht vor seinem Geburtstag gratulieren, denn das bringt Unglück.The second superstition that I practice is also very famous in Germany. It is that you must not congratulate someone before their birthday, because that brings bad luck.

Heißt: wenn ihr, wenn jetzt jemand zum Beispiel am 5. November Geburtstag hat, und ihr seht die Person am 4. November, dann dürft ihr auf keinen Fall irgendwie so was sagen wie: ja herzlichen Glückwunsch schon mal.That is to say: if you, if someone for example has their birthday on November 5th and you see the person on the November 4th, then you must absolutely not say something like: well, happy birthday in advance.

Da gibt’s nicht so viel zu erklären. Wenn ihr nachts draußen seid, und ihr habt das Glück ‘ne Sternschnuppe zu sehen, dann dürft ihr euch was wünschen und das wird dann früher oder später Realität.There’s not that much to explain. If you’re outside at night and you’re lucky enough to see a shooting star, the you may make a wish and sooner or later it will become a reality.

The German Language Polizei will be arresting me shortly for this one – did it ohne etwas im Wörterbuch/Grammatikbuch nachzuschlagen – perhaps not really ready for that. And, should be writing shorter sentences. Eager Beaver.

As for the German Language police… if you want hot German men in uniform lecturing you about grammar to show up you need to try harder. Or actually… way less hard. Your writing borders on perfect. As I said… waiting for your opinion piece in FAZ.

Reply

Amerikanerin

You are too kind! Du bist gegen mich zu nett (?). Think there is a problem with “mehrerer” in the paragraph about Geburtstag. Perhaps it should be “mehr”?

As for language police, yeah, always been a sucker for a man in uniform…

Hi, Are you sure you’re not joking with superstition number 1? I mean, do people really do that (the staring part, I mean)?!?!? Mybe I should write some c**p in German (not hard for me, anyway!), call the German Language police and make sure to stare at them :) As for numbers 2 and 3, they’re pretty common pretty much everywhere, especially number 3, there’s even a song “when you wish upon a star” or something like that about it… Bis morgen!

It’s not a prolonged stare but it’s definitely a bit over intense. It only happens with larger groups. When you’re one on one, eye contact is natural, but with 6 people it can get a bit mechanic. Wait, number two, the birthday thing, is common? I thought that was something quite unique to the German speaking world.

Reply

Elsa

It’s common in some European countries, although it’s definitely more prevalent in German, to the point of being quite unique… which means it’s where it started… But it’s been definitely head of in other places, along with the variant that you’re not supposed to give a b’day present before the actual b’day. On the other hand, there’s also special cards in some countries ( I think mostly in the US) to send people b’day wishes in advance. In Britain, the birthday boy/girl has to bring cake for their colleagues at work… Now, how’s that fair????

Reply

Hanka

The first one is funny, especially since in Czech it’s also required/customary to look people in the eyes when clinking glasses but I’m not familiar with the sex part (maybe everybody except me knows about this? haha) The main Czech superstition is, however, that when a group of people clink glasses with each other, they must be careful not to “cross” the imaginary path of the previous clink, because that’s bad luck. It’s funny how everyone subconsciously tries to obey this rule even though it sometimes resembles a math exercise :D Is this a thing in Germany as well?